Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) technology provides a flexible method for establishing communications within a dynamic networking environment. A MANET system typically consists of wireless devices, or nodes, equipped with transmitters and receivers, and configured to implement a routing protocol. For example, a node may be a mobile device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or laptop computer. Nodes that are within a predefined distance, or range, of each other may communicate with each other, creating an ad-hoc network. At any given time, the topology of the network may change as nodes move in and out of range of each other.
If two MANET-capable nodes, a source node and a destination node, that are not within range of each other wish to establish a communications session, a path of other MANET-capable nodes between the source and destination nodes may be found, where each node in the path is within range of its immediately neighboring nodes in the path. Additionally, in order to provide quality of service (QoS) required for the session, each node in the path typically reserves an amount of bandwidth for the session. The nodes in the network use a routing protocol to determine if they are included in any given path, which may change during a given session as the topology of the network changes. When a session is terminated by either the source or destination node, or when a node is no longer on a session path due to network topology changes, or when there is a lack of connectivity between the source and destination nodes for any other reason, the node can release the bandwidth reserved for the session so that it may be available for use by other sessions. Typically, a node determines that it may release the reserved bandwidth for a session only after a period of time, called a “timeout,” has passed without receiving any communication regarding the session. As network throughput and performance are highly dependent on the bandwidth available at the nodes, any unnecessary delay in releasing the bandwidth reserved by the nodes for a given session, such as waiting for a full timeout, adversely affects the network performance.